I’m currently surrounded by strangers in the tube.
Each lost to their own world of games, doom scrolls, what’s app group chat scandals, shared memes.
I don’t know these people, and as any well versed Londoner knows, the tube is not the place to strike up a conversation easily or advisedly…
I’m returning from a meeting with a old client, now friend. This is only the second time meeting in person, although I’ve worked with her for well over a year now. I feel I’ve known her a lifetime.
We whiled away the last couple of hours talking shop – change, growth, learnings from her foundation – and then onto deeper more personal stories about being underestimated as a woman, about privilege, about engrained misogyny, about confronting our own beliefs, cultural perceptions and misconceptions, expectations.
We also talked of the joys of working openly, collaboratively and with vulnerability-allowing those who can support us, to support us, about (and I quote) “holding space in a really safe way whilst letting people figure their shit out”. – which is how she described working with me.
No ego, no agenda other than good work, no shame.
This isn’t a feminists rant and this isn’t about feminine ‘leadership’, – this is a whole new construct and way of working.
And it works.
We could have talked all day I’m sure-two women from foreign lands, coming from very different backgrounds, experiencing similar experiences and feeling similar feelings. Both recognising that, not only is change needed and loooooong overdue, we have to start with peeling back the layers that have been plastered over us for decades. Once you start to notice, things will start to change and pop up like toast everywhere.
And we’re pissed, angry even, had enough. We’re tired of trying to work in the manner things have always been-it doesn’t work for us, it’s broken, it’s not as meaningful or fulfilling. I’d like to give the biggest nod to Mary Portas for sticking her hand up on this issue with her wonderful book Work Like A Woman, that cemented a lot for me.
This isn’t an isolated conversation – peers, clients, friends alike are all waking up to this same feeling that a seismic shift is needed in how we work.
With the announcement today of a potential 4 day work week in the UK, perhaps the tables are beginning to turn…
What is no longer serving you that needs to change in how you work?
Is there toast popping up all around you?